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“Whose
House? Our House!”
Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi was beaming and so were
other athletic department officials at the McNamara Alumni Center on
Wednesday night. A wall-to-wall crowd in the building’s plaza area
turned out to see new football coach Tim Brewster
announce the Gophers’ recruiting class for 2007.
Multiple sources estimated the crowd at over 2,000. A prominent alum
who has attended past recruiting day parties said the attendance was
easily a record turnout, exceeding the previous high of 450 last year.
After
Maturi told the gathering the Gophers will make it to “Pasadena” for the
Rose Bowl some day, he introduced Brewster who further energized the
crowd, a group of various ages, many of whom were wearing Gopher
colors. “Who said there is no Gopher nation?” Brewster said to the
crowd.
Brewster introduced his assistant coaches, including tight ends coach
Duane Lewis and defensive line coach Tim Cross. They
had the crowd rocking with a “whose house?” cheer. The crowd replied,
“our house!”
Brewster detailed his new recruits with comments and video. A total of
17 high school seniors and five junior college players make up the 2007
group that accepted Gopher scholarships. Five of the players were added
to the recruiting class by Brewster since he became coach about three
weeks ago. The remaining players were commitments gained by former
coach Glen Mason and his staff.
Brewster thought earlier in the week he had a sixth player, quarterback
Travaris Cadet from Florida. However, a source told Sports
Headliners the Gophers couldn’t promise the athletic Cadet would play
quarterback here so he signed with Toledo.
Mason
and his staff will ultimately be accountable for the quality of this
recruiting class. The group, typical of past Mason classes, isn’t
highly regarded in comparison with other Big Ten Conference schools but
predicting who will become standout college players is challenging
work. No one, for example, thought former Gophers Greg Eslinger,
Mark Setterstrom and Laurence Maroney would become
all-Americans.
Among
the more intriguing recruits are safety Curtis Thomas of Adline, Texas,
quarterback Clint Brewster of Denver and “athlete” Harold
Howell of Jacksonville, Florida. All three are recruits Brewster
rounded up in the brief time he’s been at Minnesota.
A
source said Texas coach Mack Brown regards Thomas to be among the
best three prep safeties in the state of Texas. Rivals.com ranked
Brewster as the 17th best pro style quarterback in the
country but as the coach’s son playing a high profile position he will
be a marked man by a fickle public and sometimes vicious local news
media. Tim Brewster told the crowd Howell, 5-8, 160-pounds, has 4.25
40-yard dash speed that he used to excel in high school as a defensive
back, receiver and kick off/punt returner.
Brewster and his staff have reputations as extraordinary recruiters and
that label will be judged much more accurately next year and the year
after. What’s evident so far by Brewster’s whirlwind appearances in the
metro area is that the new coach is determined to stop the exodus of
high school players going to other schools (at least four quality
recruits went out state).
On a
telecast of the Minnesota-Wisconsin basketball game last month Badger
football coach Bret Bielema was talking about
recruiting. He made a statement that was enough to make the fur stand
up straight on Goldy Gopher’s neck, referring to Minneapolis as part of
Wisconsin’s “in-state” recruiting area.
Brewster intends to stop that kind of talk. |
